Film Note: The Contender (2000)

I just happened across the film The Contender that aired on one of the movie channels this weekend. I don't know how I missed this film when it came out in 2000. It's about the President's nomination of a woman senator (Hanson) to become Vice President. An opponent, who supported state governor for the veep position, begins circulating rumors that Hanson was performing for money when she was apparently photographed participating in a drunken orgy as part of a sorority initiation, making it a crime (prostitution). The President wants Hanson to diffuse the rumors, but "she refuses to fight back or even address Runyon's charges, arguing that to answer the questions dignifies them being asked in the first place—something she does not believe." Moreover, and what I found interesting, is that the movie portrays "Hanson [a]s everything her foes say she isn’t: an experienced politician and an intelligent woman of solid principles." It's a touch on the unrealistic side, because I don't think a woman could fade the heat without serious collateral damage and the movie kind of lets her and the President off easy. But a good watch that raises the interesting questions of how women are/ought to be treated in politics.